The Truth Will Out
by Jamie McCrimmon
Summary: An alternate reveal of Lars's secret in "Bender's Big Score."


The explosion sent him hurtling across the floor. He landed with his back propped up by the desk which had shielded Leela and Fry from the blast. His clothes were charred and frayed exposing bright crimson wounds, his face blackened and gashed.

"Start and end with an explosion," Lars Fillmore murmured tagging his remark with a slight smirk.

Despite her earlier thoughts, Leela sprinted to his side without question, tears beginning to slide down her cheek.

"Lars! Oh My God! Lars!"

"Leela," he uttered while stroking the side of her face with his fingers, "I did good, didn't I?"

Leela barely held back a small laugh through the stream of tears. "Yes. Yes, you did." Promptly, she began inspecting his wounds.

Fry stood awkwardly in the corner. He didn't know what to do most of the time anyway let alone in a situation like this. He could feel his IQ drop below its usual room-temperature level. He opened his mouth to speak but no sounds escaped.

"Don't forget that I love you," Lars said to the goddess tending to him.

"I won't. Don't forget that I love you," Leela replied as her fingers entwined with Lars's. She turned her head to Fry and axed, "Fry, can I have your jacket?"

"What…?" he asked hesitating.

"…for Lars, as a blanket!"

"What… Oh… Yes, of course," Fry insisted as he awoke from his fog. He removed his jacket and laid it on Lars's body while Leela positioned it.

_Why does Fry's red jacket seem like it would suit Lars perfectly? Well isn't my sense of fashion rather nihilistic?_

"Leela?" Lars uttered as his voice grew weaker.

"Yes, I'm here."

"Can I look at your face? I mean, just… look into it."

"Of course."

Lars fixed his gaze onto Leela and just smiled. Despite her obvious sadness, his smile only made her want to smile right back at him. Fry twisted himself into the opposite direction and fell into his awkward daze again. An emotional death was bad enough, but now it was a romantic moment between the dying man and the woman HE loved. Yet somehow he felt that he was needed there. The silence was broken by Lars's coughing.

"There, there," Leela said while placing her hand on his chest.

"I suppose I'm glad this is how it's happening. I'm here with you, looking into your eye in the place we first met all those years ago."

Leela squinted and turned her head to Fry. He shrugged while his eyes bulged in confusion. She swung her head back to Lars. "We didn't meet here," Leela responded with a perplexed smile.

"Oh Leela, for too long I've been telling a lie. I was just about to tell the truth when Nudar came in, and I want you to know that I wouldn't have lied to you if I wasn't trying to avoid breaking the universe, timelines and all," Lars increased his tone to urging, "I didn't do it to hurt you."

"Lars, calm down. Calm down. What are you talking about?"

"Fry knows what I mean. Don't ya, Fry?" Lars axed as he shifted his gaze. Leela spun her head in the same direction.

_I'm confused. Am I supposed to be confused? Am I just being dumb? No wait! Leela seems confused so it must be okay that I'm confused._

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Fry responded.

"Oh yes you do, Mr. Go-Back-for-Pizza."

Fry's and Leela's faces fixed on each other contorted in thought for several seconds. Leela broke out of it first as she studied the lines on Lars's face, the shape of it, that nose, those eyes. It was all so familiar. It always had been. The tears she had been crying receded as she turned to Fry, visibly strained from thinking so hard. For a split second the facial features were the same. This forced her to a swift double take of both men's faces. There was also the fact that Fry's jacket did seem to suit Lars after all. Her eye widened and her mouth gaped open. She turned her head back to Lars and sighed heavily.

"What… is your name?" she axed gingerly.

"You know the answer," Lars answered with a wry smile.

Leela's forehead wrinkled and she hesitantly let out a half-sigh, half-guffaw then continued, "How in Robot Hell did I not see it sooner?"

"You actually did."

"I really didn't."

"You did," Lars reiterated almost laughing, "That's why you asked… axed, if you knew me when Hermes' body was first crushed."

"But that would be subconsciously."

"Wouldn't it count?"

"I meant consciously you jerk."

Lars and Leela both sniggered while Fry remained trapped in thought, feeling like he was left out of a joke. It was junior high all over again.

"You're less mad than I would have thought."

"You're dying. I can't be mad now."

A sudden, loud gasp erupted from behind them. Lars and Leela twirled their heads to see Fry with his mouth pried open like a fish, and whose shaking eyes were piercing into Lars. He haltingly pointed his finger at Lars and back at himself. All Lars did was nod.

"Oh!" exclaimed Fry.

_So I am the bald-headed kook._

"Indeed," Lars replied immediately before coughing.

Leela, the half-smile again drained from her face, turned herself back to Lars and again placed her hand on his chest.

"I think it's taking now," uttered Lars, barely audible.

"Do you need anything?" Leela axed.

"No, just… Goodbye, Leela," he said as his eyes twitched and he grasped her hand.

"Goodbye…" Leela uttered her own voice almost inaudible.

Lars's eyes became stationary and cloudy. Leela stared a few seconds, as a single tear clung to her left cheek, before pulling his eyelids down and speaking again softly, almost a whisper.

"…Sweet Goof-bag."

After standing up and drifting around, her reddened eye locked with Fry's in unbearable, grey and blue silence for what seemed like hours. Simultaneously they turned their heads to the floor releasing heaving puffs.

**Disclaimer: I totally own Futurama and its characters (I wish)**

**Author's Note: I wasn't trying to contest the movie. Leela seeing the ass tattoo was brilliant and hilarious. I just wanted to try something different and give Lars a chance to reveal the truth alive.**


End file.
